Bug 77183 - Redesign Data Form dialog to make it more intuitive and scale with larger data.
Summary: Redesign Data Form dialog to make it more intuitive and scale with larger data.
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Calc (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
4.2.2.1 release
Hardware: Other All
: medium enhancement
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard: BSA
Keywords:
: 77799 104721 124782 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks: Calc-DataForm
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2014-04-08 13:57 UTC by Hendrik Koch
Modified: 2019-04-17 08:54 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

See Also:
Crash report or crash signature:


Attachments
Screenshot of Data>Form... Window with no scrolling possible (145.37 KB, image/png)
2014-04-08 13:57 UTC, Hendrik Koch
Details
Sample file (9.61 KB, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet)
2014-04-09 20:43 UTC, m_a_riosv
Details
Oracle SQL Developer's Single Row window layout. (38.50 KB, image/png)
2014-05-22 12:05 UTC, Bernard du Toit
Details

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Description Hendrik Koch 2014-04-08 13:57:55 UTC
Created attachment 97078 [details]
Screenshot of Data>Form... Window with no scrolling possible

Problem description: 

Steps to reproduce:
1. Create about 30 column headers (first row)
2. Open Data>Form... 
3. Input some data. 

Current behavior: You cannot scroll the list of input fields, the last entries are not visible.

Expected behavior: To scroll down the list.

              
Operating System: Mac OS X
Version: 4.2.2.1 release
Comment 1 m_a_riosv 2014-04-09 20:43:11 UTC
Created attachment 97155 [details]
Sample file

Hi Hendrik, thanks for reporting.

Reproducible:
Win7x64Ultimate
Version: 4.2.2.1 Build ID: 3be8cda0bddd8e430d8cda1ebfd581265cca5a0f
up to 
Version: 4.3.0.0.alpha0+ Build ID: 615f6aa293a6da90da94e6e78828198ffbc0ca5e
   TinderBox: Win-x86@39, Branch:master, Time: 2014-04-08_01:30:26

Scroll bar is visible but works for the records not for the fields.
Comment 2 Kohei Yoshida 2014-05-16 15:52:16 UTC
This bug is already there in 4.1.
Comment 3 Bernard du Toit 2014-05-16 16:03:53 UTC
*** Bug 77799 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 4 Kohei Yoshida 2014-05-16 16:08:00 UTC
Due to the way this dialog works, we have no choice but to set an upper limit on the number of columns, and have the dialog fail to launch when that exceeds the limit.
Comment 5 Bernard du Toit 2014-05-16 16:11:31 UTC
Can't you do columns? Or don't use the scroll bars for moving onto the next record, since there is already buttons for that on the UI?
Comment 6 Kohei Yoshida 2014-05-16 17:29:54 UTC
(In reply to comment #5)
> Can't you do columns? Or don't use the scroll bars for moving onto the next
> record, since there is already buttons for that on the UI?

No.  Because that would be a re-design of the UI which is beyond the scope of this bug fixing.

If you want a redesign, join the design team and try to find an interested developer to take on the task.
Comment 7 Kohei Yoshida 2014-05-16 17:36:18 UTC
To clarify, I'm not against redesigning this dialog, but that would require more effort & planning and I have no interest nor time to take on such task at this time.
Comment 8 Kohei Yoshida 2014-05-16 17:37:43 UTC
Or, our alternative would be to turn this bug report into an enhancement request for the re-design of the dialog, and leave it until someone interested will show up.  It may take one month or 5 years, depending...
Comment 9 Bernard du Toit 2014-05-16 17:49:12 UTC
Since the dialog is not producing errors or causing errors, but just don't work for any columns beyond a certain count, I think it would be worth more to ask for a redesign. 

I'm working with Oracle SQL Developer, and they also have this features and theirs work well (buttons for next/pre record and scrolling for columns/fields) so there is a very simple way of making this work. 

I think the original design of this dialog was not giving enough thought because one doesn't use it that much, but a redesign would be worth it for the quality of the project. 

Because it is a stand-alone dialog that a junior/new developer can work on without messing with important code, it may be a nice assignment for new comer contributing developers.

I'm not sure what Hendrik Koch think since he also reported this.
Comment 10 Kohei Yoshida 2014-05-16 17:57:49 UTC
Actually, re-design may be the only way to go.  This dialog behaves in a very weird way even without this bug.
Comment 11 Kohei Yoshida 2014-05-16 17:59:46 UTC
Ok.. I'll give you a point there, Bernard.  I'm leaning toward what you said in Comment 9.
Comment 12 Bernard du Toit 2014-05-16 18:05:09 UTC
(In reply to comment #10)
> Actually, re-design may be the only way to go.  This dialog behaves in a
> very weird way even without this bug.

Unless you are indicating something else, yes it is weird that you use the scrollbars to move to the next record. Although their is buttons to do the same thing.

(In reply to comment #11)
> Ok.. I'll give you a point there, Bernard.  I'm leaning toward what you said
> in Comment 9.

Thanks ;)
Comment 13 Hendrik Koch 2014-05-16 19:29:08 UTC
I agree with a re-design, so that scrolling moves the window content up/down. In my opinion this is the expected behaviour of scrollbars.
Comment 14 Caolán McNamara 2014-05-19 12:50:47 UTC
The oddness preceded its conversion to .ui FWIW. Shouldn't be too hard to modify it. See sc/uiconfig/scalc/ui/dataform.ui and sc/source/ui/miscdlgs/datafdlg.cxx to get started
Comment 15 Bernard du Toit 2014-05-22 12:05:05 UTC
Created attachment 99579 [details]
Oracle SQL Developer's Single Row window layout.

For some inspiration, here is a sample of Oracle SQL Developer's design of this window. 

I don't think I need to explain it's functionality. But it is a very neat layout.
Comment 16 Greg 2015-06-08 01:05:52 UTC
Also, if the dialog won't scroll, there ought to be a warning when you click on "Form" to show that:
Number of columns has been exceeded
What the maximum number of columns are

And a help suggestion/link to possible resolutions (like how to create a relational table).

P.S. I'm not a developer.
Comment 17 m_a_riosv 2016-12-17 15:16:20 UTC
*** Bug 104721 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 18 m_a_riosv 2019-04-17 08:54:38 UTC
*** Bug 124782 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***